


I Don't Actually Need Mistletoe

by iwillgodownwithbuddie (rebeldawgspirategirl)



Series: Buddiemas 2019 [1]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: 12daysofbuddie, Buddiemas, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M, Mistletoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-11
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:15:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21752851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebeldawgspirategirl/pseuds/iwillgodownwithbuddie
Summary: Christopher is full of questions.  Today, he wants to know about Mistletoe.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Series: Buddiemas 2019 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1567804
Comments: 6
Kudos: 170





	I Don't Actually Need Mistletoe

It was a chilly December evening when Buck had somehow managed to be put on Christopher duty. Eddie had called him, asking if Buck could watch Christopher for a few hours while Eddie did some Christmas shopping. Buck hadn’t hesitated to say yes, and within the hour, pulled up outside of Eddie’s house, and let himself in, gingerbread house kits in hand. 

“Hey Buck?” Christopher began as he sat at the dining room table building a gingerbread house.

“Yeah, Buddy?” Buck responded, reaching for the icing. “Need some more cement?”

Christopher chuckled and looked up from his plateful of gumdrops to look at Buck’s face. “What’s mistletoe?”

Buck sat for a moment, trying to think of the best way to explain to an eight year old about mistletoe. Deciding to go with the simplest answer and hope for the best, Buck smiled and answered, “It’s a plant.”

He should have known that an answer like that wouldn’t satisfy Christopher’s curiosity. That kid never stopped asking him questions. He always wanted to know more. Buck and Eddie often joked that Christopher wanted to be a human encyclopedia with how many questions he asked. So, even though Buck had been hoping that the simple answer would be enough to pacify Christopher’s curiosity, it hadn’t. 

“Okay,” Christopher said. “What kind of plant?”

Buck put the icing down and pulled out his cell phone, typing “what is mistletoe” into the search engine. “It says here it lives on host trees which is how it gets water and nutrients. Why?”

“I wanted to know why it’s such a big thing at Christmas.”

“It’s supposed to be a symbol of love. I’m not sure why it’s such a big Christmas tradition, but the tradition is you kiss someone you love underneath the mistletoe. It used to be that you’d kiss any woman standing under mistletoe or it would be bad luck. I like it much better now. Now I can kiss whoever I want,” Buck said smirking.

“Like Daddy?” Christopher responded innocently.

Buck froze. He and Eddie had tried to be so careful about keeping their new relationship a secret from Christopher. They had only been dating for a couple of weeks, and it had been Buck’s idea to wait. He couldn’t stand getting Chris’ hopes up about a new potential parent just for it to potentially backfire. He wanted to make sure he and Eddie were in it for the long run, and Eddie had agreed. “What do you mean by that, Chris?”

“I mean, I saw you kiss Daddy before he left. I was coming out of my room just as he was leaving the house. But we don’t have any mistletoe.”

Buck grabbed his phone once more, sending a quick “we’ve been caught” text to Eddie before turning his attention once again back to Christopher. “Well, bud, I don’t have to wait until there’s mistletoe to kiss your dad. Not when I’m his boyfriend.”

“You’re Daddy’s boyfriend?”

“Yep. Are you okay with that?” Buck held his breath as he waited.

“Does this mean you’re like my other dad?”

“You’re just full of questions today, huh, kid? That’s entirely up to you.”

“Okay,” Chris answered, before dropping the whole conversation and returning his focus back onto the project in front of him. 

A few hours later, when Eddie had returned and stashed all the presents in the attic, he found Buck sitting on the sofa, flipping through TV channels while Christopher was off in his room working on something. “So,” Eddie started as he sat down next to Buck, “how’d we get caught?”

“You’re kid is super inquisitive,” Buck answered, chuckling. “You ought to talk to Athena about that. They probably need someone that curious on the force. Seriously, though, it all started with a conversation about mistletoe. He wanted to know the science and tradition behind it, and when I said that I like how mistletoe is used today instead of how it used to be because I can kiss whoever I wanted, he promptly mentioned that he busted us kissing as you left without mistletoe.”

“Did he take it okay when you explained it to him?”

“Yeah. He asked if it made me his other dad. I told him that was up to him. After that, he didn’t say anything else about it. Just finished his gingerbread house.”

As if on cue, Christopher made his way into the room, a piece of paper in his hand. “I drew this for you.”

Eddie took the paper and looked at the drawing of himself, Christopher and Buck. The image of Christopher was standing off to the side while the images of Buck and Eddie stood holding hands under what Eddie could only assume to be mistletoe. Christopher had captioned his picture himself with the words, “Me and My Dads.”

Eddie couldn’t hold back the smile that spread across his face as he handed the paper to Buck and reached out to pick up his son. They looked over at Buck who, with tears in his eyes, looked between the paper and the two most important people in his life. 

“Thank you,” Buck whispered. “Love you buddy.”

“Love you, too, Buck.”

And if a sprig of mistletoe appeared in the doorframe the next day, both men would deny it had anything to do with the drawing that now graced the refrigerator or the conversation with Chris. They would only ever admit that they were just taking part in the Christmas tradition of kissing someone you love under the mistletoe.

**Author's Note:**

> Reblog on Tumblr: https://iwillgodownwithbuddie.tumblr.com/post/189603141883/i-dont-actually-need-mistletoe


End file.
